The animation industry for quite some time has created an up storm. But how many of us actually know that the origin of this word goes back to the medieval period? If one looks at the etymology of this word, it comes from the Latin word animationem which means the action of imparting life. However, this word, in the commercial sense, has been in vogue since 1912. Being the best animation college in Bangalore, we have always tried to come up with article that spreads knowledge.
When we talk about animation as a process, it can be referred to as creating continuous motion and changing illusions by a rapid display of a sequence of static images that may differ from each other. In other words, inanimate objects appear to come to life by flashing minutely changed images at a rate at which our brain is able to interpret the movement. For this, it becomes necessary to understand the phenomenon of persistence of vision (PoV). As per PoV, any image that flashes in front of our eyes remains in our brain for about 1/25th of a second. In short, if our eyes see 25 images in a second, they would appear seamless and the sequence would have no gaps in between them. This is the principle that both motion pictures and animation work on.
As a top of the mind recall, Disney is the name that comes to one’s mind whenever anyone is asked to tell the name anyone associated with animation. However, even before Walt Disney, there were few notable individuals who have contributed to the field of animation when it was still in its infancy. As we read on, we will get to know about four such men who had remained unsung for a long time for their contributions.
Pioneers in animation
Eadweard Muybridge
Eadweard Muybridge’s life could be adapted to the cinema without difficulties. He arrived in the United States in 1850, almost died in a car accident ten years later, became a photographer during his recovery, killed his wife’s lover in ’74, and started a photographic expedition through Central America a year later, but claimed a privileged place in the history of animation with his work in animal locomotion, including his famous Horse in Motion, experiment that resolved the doubt of the governor of California Leland Stanford between 1872 and 1873, who believed that the horses placed all four legs in the air while running. Muybridge used a configuration of twelve cameras, and during the next twelve years, he dedicated himself to perfecting his method, giving rise to devices such as the zoopraxiscope.
James Stuart Blackton
1875 born Blackton was a talented artist who started off by making caricatures in the New York World. He debuted as a cartoonist in 1896 along with Albert Smith. Recognizing his talents as a cartoonist, he was hired by Thomas Alva Edison’s Black Maria studio to make three 150-foot films. It was for this studio that he made Humorous Cartoon, Political Cartoon and Sketching Mr. Edison and when these premiered at the Proctor’s Pleasure Palace in New York on the 12th September 1896, it made the audience take note of Blackton’s talents. This also helped him to enter the film world. The next year, he founded Vitagraph along with Albert Smith as well as acted in The Burglar on the Roof and produced Tearing Down the Spanish Flag in 1898. As the 20th century dawned, Vitagraph had become a major American film production company and Blackton had introduced techniques like stop camera techniques and under-cranking. Being regarded as the father of the American animated cartoon, he directed Raffles the Amateur Cracksman in 1905. Returning back to cartoons, he delivered hits such as The Enchanted Drawing (1906), Humorous Phases of Funny Faces (1906), Lightning Sketches (1907) and The Magic Fountain Pen (1909). His studio went on to make serials, feature films and series in the 1910s and is credited for making the first British full-color film The Glorious Adventure in 1922. However, the Wall Street Crash of 1929 reduced Blackton to a pauper and he died in 1941 in an accident.
Emile Cohl
Emile Eugène Jean Louis Courtet or Émile Cohl as the world knows him now was born in Paris in 1857. He began as a caricaturist and joined the Gaumont film company as a writer. As a versatile director, he made comedies and fantasy subjects. He was gradually drawn to animation and began experimenting on it by using line drawings, silhouettes, and puppets. It was in 1908 that he made Fantasmagorie (Fantasy in English) which is regarded as the first all-animated film in history. Over 650 drawings of the character Fantoche were created and individually photographed! Post Fantasmagorie, Cohl created 200+ animated films till 1923 for leading studios like Eclair and Pathe. Unfortunately, the Great Depression of 1929 ruined his savings and he died in abject poverty in 1938.
Otto James Messmer
Otto James Messmer was born in 1892 and is even now remembered for the Felix the Cat that he created in 1919 for the Pat Sullivan studio. After his initial training in art, he started off making illustrations for fashion magazines. But being inspired by McCay’s How a Mosquito Operates and his love for cartooning made him start creating cartoons for local newspapers. After initially working with “Henry-Hy-Mayer” on The Travels of Teddy series, Messmer joined the Pat Sullivan studio wherein he created the character of Felix the Cat. Felix has the distinction of being the character that was created and developed for the 70 mm screen as well as the mass merchandised character. This character appeared in over 130 cartoons till 1931 and entered comic books in the 1940s. By the time Messmer died in 1983, Felix the Cat had made his debut on TV as well and he was being recognized as its official creator.
Zenas Winsor McCay
Zenas Winsor McCay obtained great recognition through his comic strips Little Sammy Sneeze, Dream of the Rarebit Fiend, and his masterpiece, Little Nemo in Slumberland, so popular at the time that it ended up adapted to a play. His formal entrance to the world of animation happened in 1911, inspired by the folioscopes that his son brought home. Logically, his first short film was based on Little Nemo, with 4,000 drawings made on “rice paper.” Even more impressive was what he did in Gertie the Dinosaur, where it is possible to enjoy detailed backgrounds, a remarkable depth effect, and special attention to the dinosaur’s muscle movement. This required pure brute force, with more than 10,000 drawings.
Lotte Reiniger
Obsessed since childhood with the cut of Chinese paper and the puppets of silhouettes, Lotte Reiniger had a really meteoric rise. After animating the wood rats in Paul Wegener’s “The Pied Piper” and directing Das Ornament des Verliebten Herzens in 1919, Reiniger had plenty of merits to rub shoulders with the great German animators of the time. Finally, Reiniger claimed her place in history by becoming the first woman who directed a full-length animated film, The Adventures of Prince Achmed. Each scene and each character made in black paper was animated frame by frame, a work so arduous that it took three years to complete it (from 1923 until its debut in February 1926).
Though Walt Disney is remembered for revolutionizing animation and introducing a large number of lovable characters into this world, it is equally important for us to acknowledge and recognize the contributions made by these animators as well. Though their volume of work may appear trivial, they will be remembered for ensuring the success of animation especially during its initial phases which even leave us all in awe when we get to see them.
Want to know more about the world of animation? Come with us and get trained for Animation and Multimedia. We offer you a degree from the prestigious Bangalore Central University. Apart from this 4 year degree program, we also provide a wide range of diploma in animation and short-term courses.
For more details, please visit our website www.animaster.com
Read our blog and know the pioneers of animation.
Site Title 